Artist of the Week: Daughter’s Elena Tonra

“I just bought a harmonium,” explains Elena Tonra, the enchanting voice behind emerging London-based experimental folk duo Daughter. “We haven’t used it yet, but because we’re so new, and people don’t know what to expect from us, it means we can turn around and make something utterly crazy if we want. It’s a great position to be in.”

It’s true, despite the waves of excitement Daughter have been generating since the April release of their debut EP, His Young Heart, the twosome (currently made up of Tonra on vocals, and her boyfriend, Igor Haefeli, on guitar) have been playing as a band only since last November. As a result, they still see their sound—which masterfully blends fluttering, heart-on-the-sleeve acoustic ballads with brooding, ambient soundcapes—as a work in progress. “We’ve just found a drummer,” Tonra continues, “so it’s all kind of taking shape now.”

Prior to starting Daughter, 21-year-old Tonra had been performing her stripped-back, break up–ready love songs as a solo artist (“I had a great time, but I think it’s a lot less lonely to have other people on stage,” she jokes). But when she met Haefeli during a songwriting course at a North London music school, the soft-spoken chanteuse decided it was time to step outside of the standard singer-songwriter mold and explore a more nuanced sound.

“I got a bit bored of just me and my guitar,” she explains. “I mean, I love playing guitar, I really do, but I felt like I needed another brain to take me forward.”

It’s clear that His Young Heart is a collaborative effort. Although it’s impossible to avoid Tonra’s nimble voice and raw lyrics on acoustic tracks like “Landfill” and “The Woods,” it’s the more adventurous aspects of Daughter’s production—such as the drawn-out, wistful melodies on the instrumental track “Switzerland”—which ultimately gives their ghostly, dream-folk songs their mesmerizing sheen.

“Igor adds lots of strange sounds, which bring a really nice texture to what would, on its own, just be a folk song,” she explains. “He knows how to take it to a weird place and, more than anything, that’s kind of what we’re aiming for.”